Gulliver's Travels

Nov30

On the 350th Anniversary of his birth, David Stuart Davies looks at Jonathan Swift's most popular novel.

Gulliver’s Travels, (1726, amended 1735), whose
full title is Travels into Several Remote
Nations of the World In Four Parts By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and
then a Captain of Several Ships, was written by Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745). The novel is a savage satire on human nature, which has retained its relevance through the ages. Swift claimed that he
wrote the novel ‘to vex the world rather than divert it.’

Swift was a member of the Martinus Scriblerus Club, made up of such notable
writers as Alexander Pope, John Arbuthnot, and John Gay. They agreed to write
pieces that satirised the follies and vices of learned, scientific, and modern
men. Each of the members was given a topic, and Swift's was to satirise the
numerous and popular volumes describing voyages to faraway lands popular at the
time. Indeed, Gulliver's Travels may
be read as a systematic rebuttal of Robinson
Crusoe (1719), Daniel Defoe’s optimistic account of human capability. Swift
kept the form of the genre but expanded his target. Instead of simply parodying
the literature of fictitious voyage, he also attacked what he considered were
people's most conspicuous vices. He turned foibles and inane attitudes into the
grotesque and ridiculous. Savagely
ironic, it portrays man as foolish at best, and at worst, not much more than an
ape.

Written with disarming simplicity
and careful attention to detail, this classic is diverse in its appeal: for
children, it remains an enchanting fantasy. For adults, it is a witty parody of
political life in Swift's time and a scathing send-up of manners and morals in
18th century England.

The novelrecounts the story
of Lemuel Gulliver, a practical-minded
Englishman trained as a surgeon who takes to the seas when his business fails.
In a first-person narrative tinged with irony Gulliver narrates the adventures
that befall him on these travels into strange and fantastic realms.

His first experience is in the land of Lilliput inhabited by small humanoid
creatures. After being shipwrecked, Gulliver wakes to find himself bound by
innumerable tiny threads and addressed by his minute captors who are in awe of
this giant but fiercely protective of their kingdom. They are not afraid to use
violence against Gulliver, though their arrows are little more than pinpricks
to him. But overall, they are hospitable, risking famine in their land by
feeding Gulliver, who consumes enough food to feed a thousand Lilliputians.
This portion of the novel is popular as a children’s story – indeed I was given
a simplified version as a Sunday school prize when I was seven years old.

Eventually Gulliver becomes a
national hero, used by the army in its war against the people of Blefuscu, whom
the Lilliputians hate for doctrinal differences concerning the proper way to
crack eggs. But things change when Gulliver is convicted of treason for putting
out a fire in the royal palace with his urine and is condemned to be shot in
the eyes and starved to death. Gulliver escapes to Blefuscu, where he is able
to repair a boat he finds and set sail for England.

Gulliver’s next voyage takes him to Brobdingnag, a land of giants. Here,
he is discovered by a farmer who sells him as a novelty animal to the Queen who
is entertained by his musical talents. However Gulliver is often repulsed by
the physicality of the Brobdingnagians, whose ordinary flaws are magnified by
their huge size. For example when a
couple of courtly ladies let him play on their naked bodies, he is not
attracted to them but rather disgusted by their enormous skin pores. Even
Brobdingnagian insects leave slimy trails on his food that make eating
difficult. Gulliver is able to escape Brobdingnag when his cage is plucked up
by an eagle and dropped into the sea.

Not daunted by his previous adventures Gulliver sets sail yet again and,
after an attack by pirates, ends up in Laputa, where a floating island
inhabited by theoreticians and academics oppresses the land beneath it, called
Balnibarbi. The scientific research undertaken in Laputa and Balnibarbi seems
totally inane and impractical, and its residents too appear wholly out of touch
with reality. Taking a short side trip to Glubbdubdrib, Gulliver is able to
witness the conjuring up of figures from history, such as Julius Caesar and
other military leaders, whom he finds much less impressive than in books. After
visiting the Luggnaggians and the Struldbrugs, the latter being senile
immortals who prove that age does not bring wisdom, he is able to sail to Japan
and from there back to England.

Finally, on his fourth journey, he arrives in a land populated by
Houyhnhnms, rational-thinking horses who are the rulers, and by Yahoos, brutish
humanlike creatures who serve the Houyhnhnms. He is treated with great courtesy
and kindness by the horses and is enlightened by his many conversations with
them and by his exposure to their noble culture. He wants to stay with the
Houyhnhnms, but his physical features are too much like those of a Yahoo and so
they eventually reject him. Grief-stricken, he agrees to leave. On his return
home, he now views as all humans as being like the Yahoos. He becomes a
recluse, spending most of his time in the stable talking to the horses.

Most dramatised versions of the story – and there have been many –
concentrate on the comic characters and situations that occur in the novel and
avoid the satirical implications completely. Often the voyage to Lilliput is
the main focus of the production, neglecting the other sections. Of the notable
adaptations mention must be made of Max Fleischer's early animated
feature-length classic, which appeared in 1939. It was aimed at children and
was very much in the Walt Disney mould. In 1960 there was The Three Worlds of Gulliver which used actors and stop motion
photography with Kerwin Matthews as the intrepid voyager. Again it was designed
for a youth audience. In 2010 there was a version starring Jack Black in the
title role. While the screenplay mainly concentrated on Gulliver’s experiences
in Lilliput, the story was set in the modern day. The movie was essentially a fantasyadventurecomedy film which one reviewer
stated ‘fails to do any justice to its source material, relying instead on
juvenile humour and special effects.’

The scope and adult ferocity of Swift’s satirical deconstructions of human
behaviour are not really suited to drama. The novel is an amusing, scathing and
perceptive intellectual treat which is best savoured by being read.